I started to read to book for the sole purpose of finding intellectual ideas present in the contemporary right-wing terrorism and the growing "eco-fascist" movement, but unfortunately didn't find any, so the book is only valuable as a historical account of early American fascination with eugenics. Even those rulers who most abused this power put down with merciless rigor the antisocial elements, such as pirates, brigands or anarchists, which impair the progress of a community, as disease or wounds cripple an individual. The Passing of the Great Race or The Racial Basis of European History is a book written by Madison Grant. Interesting efforts to improve the quality as well as the quantity of the population, however, will probably be made in more than one country after the war [World War I] has ended. In his biography of Grant,Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics and the Legacy of Madison Grant, Jonathan Spiro writes that almost nothing inThe Passing of the Great Raceis original. Rather, the book is a compendium of the work of other scholars, and almost every paragraph can be directly traced back to figures such as the European scientific racists Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. The German translation of The Passing of the Great Race also influenced the eugenics programs and genocide that Hitler and Nazi Germany committed. By Terry Gross. Abroad, conditions are fully as bad, and we have the authority of one of the most eminent anthropologists in France that the collection of anthropological measurements and data among French recruits at the outbreak of the Great War was prevented by Jewish influence, which aimed to suppress any suggestion of racial differentiation in France. Mistaken regard for what are believed to be divine laws and a sentimental belief in the sanctity of human life tend to prevent both the elimination of defective infants and the sterilization of such adults as are themselves of no value to the community. The US Supreme Court did not overturn such laws, called anti-miscegenation laws, until the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. ", Alexander, Charles C. "Prophet of American Racism: Madison Grant and the Nordic Myth. The second chapter, "Paleolithic Man," draws directly from Henry Fairfield Osborns Men of the Old Stone Age. ", Fuentes, Agustn, Rebecca Rogers Ackermann, Sheela Athreya, Deborah Bolnick, Tina Lasisi, Sang-Hee Lee, Shay-Akil McLean, and Robin Nelson. Hereditarianism ran counter to the belief in education, hard work, and "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps.". Physical and psychical disharmonies are common among crosses between Indians, negroes and whites, but where the parents are more closely related racially we often obtain individuals occupying the border-land between genius and insanity. The impulse upward, however, is supplied by a very small number of nations and by a very small proportion of the population in such nations. Grant viewed the immigration into the US of different groups as not beneficial. The good people of the heroic Nordic race, he cried, were always at risk of subversion by their darker-skinned inferiors, even in the land of Horatio Alger, where heredity, with enough sweat from ones brow, was not supposed to trump environment or self-determination. In addition to Galtons eugenics works, Grant drew from earlier attempts to classify humans into hierarchies according to race. The continuity of physical traits and the limitation of the effects of environment to the individual only are now so thoroughly recognized by scientists that it is at most a question of time when the social consequences which result from such crossings will be generally understood by the public at large. This is a practical, merciful and inevitable solution of the whole problem and can be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased and the insane and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types." These children were often fathered by their white masters, which led to their fair skin and resemblance to other white children. anyone who doesnt believe that this book has been the basis for Western policy for the last 75 years either hasnt read it or hasnt turned their head from side to side and looked around. Book Source: Digital Library of India Item 2015.527634. dc.contributor.author: Madison Grant dc.date.accessioned: 2015-10-01T21:01:28Z Throughout history it is only the race of the leaders that has counted and the most vigorous have been in control and will remain in mastery in one form or another until such time as democracy and its illegitimate offspring, socialism, definitely establish cacocracy [rule by the worst] and the rule of the worst and put an end to progress. The Passing of the Great Race helped legitimize concepts of biological race and encouraged scientific racism in the US. In the new world that we are working and fighting for, the world of liberty, of justice and of humanity, we shall save democracy only when democracy discovers its own aristocracy as in the days when our Republic was founded. These center around the growing numbers of immigrants from non-Nordic Europe. Following the publication of The Passing of the Great Race, Grant took an active role in many influential eugenics organizations in the US, including the Eugenics Research Association, The Galton Society for the Study of the Origin and Evolution of Man, the American Eugenics Society, and the International Commission on Eugenics. This same Nordic element, everywhere the type of the sailor, the soldier, the adventurer and the pioneer, was ever the type to migrate to new countries, until the ease of transportation and the desire to escape military service in the last forty years reversed the immigrant tide. A fantastically "just-so" book: things are ordered exactly as Grant wishes them to be, he just makes up whatever conditions he needs to knit things together. From barely-used Formula 1 circuits to shuttered . His fantastical theories espouse the idea that the "Nordic race" is inherently superior to other human beings. 4th rev. A.B.S. To imitate or to adopt what others have invented is not genius but mimicry. One of the curious effects of democracy is the unquestionable fact that there is less freedom of the press than under autocratic forms of government. May 14, 2019. The men of Nordic blood to-day form practically all the population of Scandinavian countries, as also a majority of the population of the British Isles and are almost pure in type in Scotland and eastern and northern England. As the vice president of the Immigration Restriction League, Grant argued that immigration quotas at the time needed to be reduced. He called the first positive eugenics, which encouraged people he considered superior to have more children. The high tide of the Mongol invasion was during the thirteenth century. Mankind emerged from savagery and barbarism under the leadership of selected individuals whose personal prowess, capacity or wisdom gave them the right to lead and the power to compel obedience. He marshals an impressive amount of facts and scholarship to an entirely useless aim. ", Serwer, Adam. With the remaining race, the Nordic, however, the case is different. Slaves began to be imported into Italy in numbers in the second century B. C. to work the large plantations - latifundia - of the wealthy Romans. Galton described two dimensions of eugenics. ", Gidley, M. "Notes on F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Passing of the Great Race. Stephen Jay Gould described The Passing of the Great Race as " the most influential tract of American scientific racism "[11], Grant was involved in many debates on the discipline of anthropology against the anthropologist Franz Boas, who advocated cultural anthropology in contrast to Grant's "hereditarian" branch of physical anthropology. "The Passing of The Great Race" became an immediate best seller, with new editions in 1918, 1920 and 1921, multiple printings and translations in German, French and Norwegian. [7] Thus, whenever such traits were found in a non-Nordic culture, Grant said that they were evidence of a Nordic influence or admixture, rather than casting doubt on their supposed exclusive Nordic origin. Grant claimed that the Nordic race was at risk of extinction and advocated for the creation of laws in the US to decrease the population of people he considered inferior. Search the history of over 797 billion The tendency in a democracy is toward a standardization of type and a diminution of the influence of genius. It is everywhere characterized by certain unique specializations, namely, wavy brown or blond hair and blue, gray or light brown eyes, fair skin, high, narrow and straight nose, which are associated with great stature, and a long skull, as well as with abundant head and body hair. Grant criticizes charities and philanthropists for intervening in natural selection through their efforts to assist the less fortunate. Publication date 1917 Topics C-DAC Collection digitallibraryindia; JaiGyan Language English. Although fundamentally flawed - very refreshing! According to Spiro, German anthropologists involved in the passage of the law were influenced by Grants advocacy for forced sterilizations that he put forth in his book. For 200 years the Spanish infantry had no equal in Europe but this distinction disappeared with the opening decades of the seventeenth century. He bade fare well to Christian and democratic values. In the book, the character Tom Buchanan reads a book called The Rise of the Colored Empires by "this man Goddard", a combination of Grant and his colleague Lothrop Stoddard. . He advocates for a significant expansion of laws that condemn the marriage of people of different races, and even goes so far as to argue that the birth of mixed-race people should be considered racial crimes. The list of venues that no longer host organized races is countless. My favorite personally is his cover for the 2012 edition of Madison Grant's The Passing of The Great Race, with a foreword by none other than Jared Taylor, with his name printed on the front cover. Cohen, Adam. True aristocracy or a true republic is government by the wisest and best, always a small minority in any population. Condition: Brand new. Grant, while aware of the "Nordic Migration Theory" into the Mediterranean, appears to reject this theory as an explanation for the high civilization features of the Greco-Roman world. The Emperors to please the vulgar erected from time to time new shrines to strange gods utterly unknown to the Romans of the early Republic. The book was originally published in 1916, but Wermod & Wermod Publishing Group have through their imprint The Palingenesis Project updated the text to modern standards by adding bibliographical data, index, explanatory footnotes and system of citation. It may be taken as an absolute certainty that all the original races of man had dark eyes. In the brief chapter "Racial Aptitudes," Grant claims that people largely inherit moral, intellectual, and spiritual traits, which results in different racial aptitudes. "Racism, the Immigration Enforcement Regime, and the Implications for Racial Inequality in the Lives of Undocumented Young Adults. The former catastrophe happened in the declining days of the Roman Republic and the south Italians of to-day are very largely descendants of the nondescript slaves of all races, chiefly from the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, who were imported by the Romans under the Empire to work their vast estates. The book received positive reviews in the 1920s, but Grant's popularity declined in the 1930s. Coolidge, Calvin. It must be borne in mind that the specializations which characterize the higher races are of relatively recent development, are highly unstable and when mixed with generalized or primitive characters tend to disappear. European history has been written in terms of nationality and of language, but never before in terms of race; yet race has played a far larger part than either language or nationality in moulding the destinies of men; race implies heredity and heredity implies all the moral, social and intellectual characteristics and traits which are the springs of politics and government. This purpose has been accomplished thoroughly, and one of the most far-reaching effects of the doctrines enunciated in this volume and in the discussions that followed its publication was the decision of the Congress of the United States to adopt discriminatory and restrictive measures against the immigration of undesirable races and peoples. The Nordics are, all over the world, a race of soldiers, sailors, adventurers, and explorers, but above all, of rulers, organizers, and aristocrats in sharp contrast to the essentially peasant character of the Alpines. According to Grant, democratic ideals wrongly assume that environmental factors such as education affect human development and achievement rather than heredity. It sometimes happens that an infiltration of population takes place either in the guise of unwilling slaves or of willing immigrants, who fill up waste places and take to the lowly tasks which the lords of the land despise, thus gradually occupying the country and literally breeding out their masters. "The Passing of the Great Race is one of the most prominent racially oriented books of all times, written by the most influencial American conservationist that ever lived. Additionally, a 1921 article by then Vice President Calvin Coolidge published in Good Housekeeping echoed many of the ideas presented in The Passing of the Great Race, as Coolidge called for immigration restriction and condemned interracial marriages. She is concerned only with the perpetuation of the species or type and heredity alone is the medium through which she acts. "Passing of the Great Race," Madison Grant (1916) 2016 marks a century since the publication of The Passing of the Great Race, a book described by the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould as "the most influential tract of American scientific racism." It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved.". Such an admission we can hardly expect from those of inferior races. They lack the instinct of self-preservation in a racial sense. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. While emphasizing the importance of race, it must not be forgotten that environment, while it does not alter the potential capacity of the stock, can perform miracles in the development of the individual. Each race differs in the relative proportion of what we may term good and bad strains, just as nations do, or, for that matter, sections and classes of the same nation. An acutely prophetic "no more brother wars" book, published in 1916. Woods dismissed the unfavorable reviews as likely written by non-Nordic authors who were angry that Grant called them inferior. 5 (Nov., 1916), pp. His analysis of population studies, economic utility factors, labor supply, etc. 2016 marks a century since the publication of The Passing of the Great Race, a book described by the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould as "the most influential tract of American scientific racism."Its author, Madison Grant, a genteel dabbler with impeccable establishment ties, was a pure and unabashed bigot, a patrician who defended social inequality as the outcome of biological fact. 1923, C. Scribner's sons. ed. The Passing of the Great Race (1916) is his most famous work"[2]. With the support of his friend Theodore Roosevelt, who later served as the twenty-sixth President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, Grant co-founded the New York Zoological Society in 1895 and the Bronx Zoo in 1899 to promote wildlife conservation and the study of animals. If the Melting Pot is allowed to boil without control and we continue to follow our national motto and deliberately blind ourselves to all "distinctions of race, creed or color," the type of native American of Colonial descent will become as extinct as the Athenian of the age of Pericles, and the Viking of the days of Rollo. [6] The Passing of the Great Race was influential for politicians working to pass state laws that prohibited interracial marriage in the US. "AAPA Statement on Race and Racism. The Passing of the Great Race or the Racial Basis of European History Madison Grant 3.22 126 ratings18 reviews This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. In Grant's view, Nordics probably evolved in a climate which "must have been such as to impose a rigid elimination of defectives through the agency of hard winters and the necessity of industry and foresight in providing the year's food, clothing, and shelter during the short summer. The cross between a white man and an Indian is an Indian; the cross between a white man and a Negro is a Negro; the cross between a white man and a Hindu is a Hindu; and the cross between any of the three European races and a Jew is a Jew. According to historian Winston, present-day neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups continue to cite The Passing of the Great Race as foundational to their movement. Nordic theory, in Grant's formulation, was largely copied from the work of Arthur de Gobineau that appeared in the 1850s, except that Gobineau used the study of language while Grant used physical anthropology to define races. "Everybody ought to read it", the character explained. "Reviewed Work(s): The Passing of the Great Race: Or the Racial Basis of European History by Madison Grant. It is well-nigh impossible to publish in the American newspapers any reflection upon certain religions or races which are hysterically sensitive even when mentioned by name. [Nordic] race is long skulled, very tall, fair skinned with blond or brown hair and light colored eyes. What's that you say? Part two, "European Races in History," contains fourteen chapters that trace the prehistory of Europe, outline the purported differences between the three European races that Grant claims exist, and detail the origin and achievements of the allegedly superior Nordic race. Tripe. This, however, is at present a counsel of perfection and we must face conditions as they are. The first method was adopted by the Spartans, who had for their national ideals military efficiency and the virtues of self-control, and along these lines the results were completely successful. A record of the desperate efforts of the conqueror classes in India to preserve the purity of their blood persists until this very day in their carefully regulated system of castes. Uploaded by If Grant's elite had predominated in North America, it is no exaggeration to say that the history of the 20th century would have been altogether different" - Richard Spencer, Alternative Right, National Policy Institute. He can breed from the best or he can eliminate the worst by segregation or sterilization. web pages The passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 significantly limited the quota of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, who Grant claimed were undesirable, and prevented nearly all immigration from east Asia. Then, if the strain survives, it is by the slow reversion to one of the parent types - almost inevitably the lower. Yet, while Grant allowed Mediterraneans to have abilities in art, as quoted above, later in the text in a sop to Nordic Migration Theorists, he remarked that true Mediterranean achievements were only through admixture with Nordics: This is the race that gave the world the great civilizations of Egypt, of Crete, of Phoenicia including Carthage, of Etruria and of Mycenean Greece. The book appeared when the anti-German propaganda machine was shifting into high gear, with images of German soldiers raping nuns and bombing cathedrals. He understood that race and culture are inseparable, since the latter can only take root in the former. Kurtagi published his art on many volumes of far-right books. The book presents Grant's view on Europeans, argued to consist of three branches, namely the Alpine, Nordic and Mediterranean races. The most primitive Aryan languages, namely, Lettish, Lithuanian and the recently extinct Old Prussian, are found in this neighborhood and here we are not far from the original Nordic homeland. with a documentary supplement / with prefaces by Henry Fairfield Osborn. on May 15, 2008, A related article in the November 2019 Harper's Magazine by Doug Henwood, "To Serve Is To Rule - Why We Miss the WASPs". on the Internet. However, they still maintained that the book held value due to Grants ability to synthesize the arguments of earlier eugenics works in an accessible and concise way. The passing of the great race or, The racial basis of European history. He also attributed criticism of the first edition of the book to widespread anti-German sentiment during World War I. Franz Boas, a Jewish immigrant from Germany and professor of anthropology at Columbia University in New York City wrote one of the most critical reviews of The Passing of the Great Race. In the Europe of to-day the amount of Nordic blood in each nation is a very fair measure of its strength in war and standing in civilization. Page 4 - In the city of New York, and elsewhere in the United States, there is a native American aristocracy resting upon layer after layer of immigrants of lower races, and the native American, while, of course, disclaiming the distinction of a patrician class, nevertheless has, up to this time, supplied the leaders of thought and the control of capital, of education, and of the religious . The Romans died out but the slaves survived and their descendants form the great majority of the south Italians of to-day. We are now engaged in destroying the privilege of wealth; that is, the reward of successful intelligence and industry and in some quarters there is developing a tendency to attack the privilege of intellect and to deprive a man of the advantage gained from an early and thorough classical education. By the time of Grants death in 1937, Passing had reportedly sold 16,000 copies in the US according to Grants New York Times Obituary. ", G.H.B. Instead, he argues that sterilization programs for people of inferior genetics are much better suited to protect people of the Nordic race in the US. In the French Revolution the majority, calling itself "the people," deliberately endeavored to destroy the higher type and something of the same sort was in a measure done after the American Revolution by the expulsion of the Loyalists and the confiscation of their lands, with a resultant loss to the growing nation of good race strains, which were in the next century replaced by immigrants of far lower type. Published by Good Press. Firstly, it comes with a number of enhancements that will be found in no other edition, including: an introductory essay by Jared Taylor (of American Renaissance), which puts Grant's text into context from our present-day perspective; a full complement of editorial footnotes, which correct and update Grant's original narration; an expanded index; a reformated bibliography, following modern conventions of style and meeting today's more demanding data requirements. The Passing of the Great Race: Or, the Racial Basis of European History. The population of the so-called Baltic provinces of Russia is everywhere Nordic and their affinities are with Scandinavia and Germany rather than with Slavic Moscovy. It gave us, when mixed and invigorated with Nordic elements, the most splendid of all civilizations, that of ancient Hellas, and the most enduring of political organizations, the Roman State. Know your enemy. Why, because the information doesn't agree with your (whether you realize it or not) Jewish Marxist world view, which is based on lies and falsehoods, especially the doctrine of so-called "racial equality", of which only exists in a FANTASY WORLD. (Grant wrote the introduction to Stoddard's book The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy.) In the chapters "Race and Habitat" and "The Competition of Races," Grant considers how natural selection occurs in humans of the modern world through disease and competition. The term "Caucasian race" has ceased to have any meaning except where it is used, in the United States, to contrast white populations with Negroes or Indians or in the Old World with Mongols. Though the anti-Semitic views of Gobineau and Chamberlain can be found in The Passing of the Great Race, Grant most closely follows the racial classification proposed by economist William Z. Ripley in Ripleys 1899 book The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study. Unless such an instinct develops their race will perish, as do all organisms which disregard this primary law of nature. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. A disturbing book to read when considering that Madison Grant was a strong influencer of the early eugenicists in the USA (Davenport most specifically) and that his unscientific musings on the use of skulls shape and language as evidence of racial superiority and weakness. Sweden, after sending forth her Goths and other early Teutonic tribes, turned her attention to the shores of the eastern Baltic, colonized the coast of Finland and the Baltic provinces and supplied also a strong Scandinavian element to the aristocracy of Russia. One of the curious effects of democracy is the unquestionable fact that there is less freedom of the press than under autocratic forms of government. After reading The Passing of the Great Race, Congressman Albert Johnson, the Chair of the US House of Representatives Committee on Immigration and Naturalization from the sixty-sixth to the seventy-first Congresses, was impressed by Grants work and reached out to Grant, establishing a casual correspondence between the two according to Spiro. In the chapter "The Physical Basis of Race," Grant explains his now-disproven claims that race is based in biology. Equality in their minds meant merely that they were just as good Englishmen as their brothers across the sea. He also doesn't like universal suffrage, socialists, labor unions, or Jews, none of which were a surprise given that, you know, he's a racist asshole. The theory and the book were praised by Adolf Hitler and other Nazis, so much so that the it was the first foreign book published by the Nazis[clarification needed] after they came to power.[3]. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Man has the choice of two methods of race improvement. He supposes the existence of events and contacts and movements without support, neglects the facts that contradict his models, and emphasises beyond all reason heredity over environment (as racists do). Under modern social conditions it would be extremely difficult in the first instance to determine which were the most desirable types, except in the most general way and even if a satisfactory selection were finally made, it would be in a democracy a virtual impossibility to limit by law the right to breed to a privileged and chosen few. Grant also helped establish numerous conservation organizations and parks, such as the Save-the-Redwoods League and Denali National Park in Alaska. It really deserves one star for it's completely irrational and misguided claims about racial taxonomies, its pseudo-science and its historical inaccuracies. The US Congress did not adjust the quotas in the following decades to accommodate Jewish refugees fleeing the genocide committed by Nazi Germany. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. As a result, Grant believes that democracies that average people run are less efficient than aristocracies ruled by men qualified by noble birth. The message was anti-democratic and anti-Christian, which did not sit well with the patriotic public. History. Moral, intellectual and spiritual attributes are as persistent as physical characters and are transmitted substantially unchanged from generation to generation. The Passing Of The Great Race(1917) by Madison Grant. "A Review of Reviews: Of Madison Grants Passing of the Great Race.